Notable quotes, excerpts, and profound lines.

[TenaciousBadger]

Not really a spoiler but one instance of disreputable language
Well used I'd say.

Spoiler:

What Telemachus said next surprised me a good deal.

After dropping in on King Nestor, who could tell him nothing, he'd gone off to visit Menelaus.

Menelaus himself. Menelaus the rich, Menelaus the thickhead, Menelaus of the loud voice, Menelaus the cuckold. Menelaus, the husband of Helen cousin Helen, Helen the lovely, Helen the septic bitch, root cause of all my misfortunes.

--from The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood
(still in my TBR pile )

[fruiter]

Originally Posted by TenaciousBadger

Not really a spoiler but one instance of disreputable language
Well used I'd say.



--from The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood
(still in my TBR pile )

Hey, this sounds great! I think I'm going to add it to my TBR pile as well. I don't think I've ever read something by her (shame on me, I know!).

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by fruiter

Hey, this sounds great! I think I'm going to add it to my TBR pile as well. I don't think I've ever read something by her (shame on me, I know!).

Margaret Atwood and I don't get along, but I cannot deny her talent for prose.

[Namekuseijin]

Whew! Too long! Since I stopped on page 9, forgive me if this was brought before:

This thing all things devours:
Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;
Gnaws iron, bites steel;
Grinds hard stones to meal;
Slays king, ruins town
And beats high mountain down.
-- Gollum's riddle from Tolkien's The Hobbit

take your time to figure that out...

[WT Sharpe]

I haven't read the book, but my answer to that riddle would be

Spoiler:

Time

?

[Namekuseijin]

yep

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by Namekuseijin

yep

When you're old, you think of these things!

[WT Sharpe]

.....If my theory of relativity is proven correct, Germany will claim me as a German and France will declare that I am a citizen of the world. Should my theory prove untrue, France will say that I am a German and Germany will declare that I am a Jew.
..........— Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955), US (German-born) theoretical physicist. From an address at the Sorbonne in Paris, quoted in The New York Times (16 February 1930). Several variants exist.

[Namekuseijin]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

When you're old, you think of these things!

oh, come on! I'm sure the hint was handy enough...

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Namekuseijin

oh, come on! I'm sure the hint was handy enough...

Actually I didn't even notice the hint and didn't remember the riddle from reading it decades ago, but did get the answer right.


Go OLDSTERS GO!!

[TenaciousBadger]

The human mind is a wonderful thing. It starts working the moment you're born and only stops when you get up to speak

-- Roscoe Drummond

[boxcorner]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

.....If my theory of relativity is proven correct, Germany will claim me as a German and France will declare that I am a citizen of the world. Should my theory prove untrue, France will say that I am a German and Germany will declare that I am a Jew.
..........— Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955), US (German-born) theoretical physicist. From an address at the Sorbonne in Paris, quoted in The New York Times (16 February 1930). Several variants exist.

Given the prevailing pre-war geopolitics, he probably wasn't joking, but with the benefit of hindsight, it's certainly amusing now.

[emonti8384]

The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of price is forgotten
Bobby Scofield, VW mechanic

[TenaciousBadger]

From too much love of living,
From hope and fear set free,
We thank with brief thanksgiving
Whatever gods may be
That no life lives forever;
That dead men rise up never;
That even the weariest river
Winds somewhere safe to sea.

-- from THE GARDEN OF PROSERPINE by Algernon Charles Swinburne

[WT Sharpe]

.....We have no more a real democracy in the world today. Democracy in politics has in no country led to democracy in its economic life. We still have autocracy in industry as firmly seated on its throne as theocratic kings ruling in the name of a god, or aristocracy ruling by military power; and the forces represented by these twain, superseded by the autocrats of industry, have become the allies of the power which took their place of pride. Religion and rank, whether content or not with the subsidiary place they now occupy, are most often courtiers of Mammon and support him on his throne. For all the talk about democracy our social order is truly little more democratic than Rome was under the Caesars, and our new rulers have not, with all their wealth, created a beauty which we could imagine after generations brooding over with uplifted heart.
..........— (A.E.) George W. Russell (1867-1935), Irish poet, artist, essayist. National Being: Some Thoughts on an Irish Polity (1917).